Waterbury Reservoir

[Vince Rossano]

I skated on Waterbury Reservoir late this afternoon from the Blush Hill Road boat launch west toward the dam and then up lake about a mile.  The ice is totally safe: I found six inches of ice wherever I tested (3 places).  The ice surface, though, is highly varied.  The southern section has ice from, say, 7 to 9: some lumpy stretches, then some pretty smooth black ice on other stretches.  Heading north, the ice gets progressively worse.  About a mile up lake, it got to be sticky going.  Less wind here and the snow probably wasn't cleared from the ice before the thaw this weekend. Now it has refrozen - like skating through meringue cookies. 

Everywhere the ice was covered with about an eight of an inch of snow.  And it was snowing lightly when I left the ice.  

This has been another in my series of "not worth traveling any distance, but, if you like exploring, it can be an interesting skate" reviews.  :-)

-Vince